geekdad

December 25, 2011

Parents beware: it's that time of year when 'is Santa real?' searches spike

Santa Claus tries the slopes on Whistler mountain in Whistler, B.C. on Saturday Dec. 17, 2011. Parents beware: with just a few days left till Christmas, it might be wise to keep the little ones away from the Internet.If past trends are any indication, Google is likely now seeing spikes of searches like "Is Santa real?". THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

TORONTO - Parents beware: with just a few days left till Christmas, it might be wise to keep the little ones away from the Internet.

If past trends are any indication, Google is likely now seeing spikes of searches like "Is Santa real?"

While Google declined an interview request, the search giant did confirm that queries such as "is Santa Claus real" and "Santa real" — which is the most common — have become more popular with each passing year and typically spike in the days before Christmas.

Ross Mayfield found out about the trend the hard way while watching TV recently with his nine-year-old son.

"We saw some car commercial where Santa was delivering cars as presents and he just couldn't believe that would be possible for Santa to be able to fit these cars in a bag," Mayfield said.

"He grabbed the iPad, Googled the phrase 'is santa real,' and after looking at one or two pages said to his mom, 'There, I'm convinced! Santa's definitely not real, I Googled it!'"

Mayfield never considered that his kids might have the big Santa question spoiled by the Internet and now hopes he can convince his son that Santa is real.

"Every Christmas Eve we have a really big dinner and I'll dress up as Santa, come to the door, say 'Ho ho ho,' give the kids a hug and deliver a bagful of presents. Somehow I've managed up till this point for him to not recognize me," Mayfield said.

"We decided to not change the tradition and if he ends up going, 'Oh it's daddy!' then I might see if I can explain it as, 'Well, Santa's really busy, he's got a lot of helpers and I'm one of them.'"

According to Google, the most searches asking if Santa is real come from users in Ireland. For the search "is santa claus real," Canadians were the fourth most likely to ask the question. Toronto ranked fourth on the global list of cities that asked the question most, behind Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago.

When looking just at the Canadian search results for "santa real" going back to 2008, most searches were in British Columbia followed by Nova Scotia, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan and Quebec. Calgary ranks highest among cities, followed by Vancouver, Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Waterloo, Ont., and Montreal.

Parents with the new iPhone 4S can relax. The popular voice-activated function Siri appears to feign ignorance and doesn't answer questions about Santa's existence.

Last night during dinner I asked my son about Santa. He said he didn't know who the person was dressed up as Santa, but he was a fake. And that he would try to believe and play along. In the end he is being rational, while enjoying part of the spirit of Christmas that is belief.

The interview happened because the journalist found a post of mine on Google+. What's interesting is every time I share our Santa story, it tends to get two reactions: how cute and good it is, or how we are horrible parents for tricking our kids. And I'm always amazed at how strong both reactions are.

July 12, 2007

I'm guest blogging at WIRED's Geek Dad. A bit daunting because of how hard core the contributors are. Last time I saw Steve Jurvetson he was packing up rockets taller than him and assuring me they wouldn't explode in his office. My initial contribution makes the case for summer boredom.